From a news story today on CNBC, it's only a matter of time before this becomes commonplace in the US. Discuss.
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CVS Caremark (CVS) has put its employees on notice that they need to reveal their weight or pay a monthly $50 penalty.
Pedestrians walk pass a CVS store in Chicago."Avoid the $600 annual surcharge," CVS warns its employees who use the company's health insurance plan. They've been told they are required by May 1 to show up to a doctor for an annual WebMD (WBMD) Wellness Review and submit to tests for blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass and body weight.
"Going forward, you'll be expected not just to know your numbers -- but also to take action to manage them," the CVS policy states.
While many employers have been pushing its workers to get healthier, it's usually through incentives rather than penalties. "This is about as coercive and blunt as I've ever seen," said Dr. Deborah C. Peel, the founder of Patient Privacy Rights, a nonprofit organization based in Austin, Texas.
"Many employers want to do something for their workers, but very few of them are stupid enough to say give us the information and sign this form and say it's voluntary," Peel said.
Smokers working for CVS are also warned: "You must either be tobacco-free by May 1, 2014, or participate in the WebMD tobacco cessation program." Defiant smokers can avoid penalties if they are healthy enough in other categories specified by the company.
Despite the company's promises, Peel worries if CVS and WebMD will be able to keep the employee records completely private. Peel said people are already declining to get health treatment for issues ranging from psychiatry to sexual diseases, for fear the information will not be kept private.
In a statement, CVS said the employee health data will be kept private and it defended its new policy. CVS, which is based in Rhode Island, also said the company would never see the test results.
"The use of health screenings by employer-sponsored health plans is a common practice. According to a National Business Group on Health survey, 79 percent of employers offered a health assessment in 2011 and 76 percent of those employers offered incentives for completion. Also, 62 percent of large employers offered biometric screenings and 52 percent of those employers offered incentives for completion),' the CVS statement reads in part.
"CVS Caremark is committed to providing medical coverage and health care programs for our colleagues and our benefits program is evolving to help our colleagues engage more actively to improve their health and manage health-associated costs. An initial step to accomplish this goal is a health screening and wellness review so that colleagues know their key health metrics in order to take action to improve their overall health, if necessary."
WebMD did not immediately respond to a request to comment on its program.
The CVS policy was first reported Tuesday by the Boston Herald.
I personally see this as an invasion of privacy. Yes, I can understand that this country is an obesity crisis but in my opinion that is not one of the ways to solve it. I find this upsetting as a frequent CVS customer, but they are one of the major chains in my area with good locations. This is just wrong though, I feel.
It sounds silly for many reasons, but what bothers me is that is doesn't address WHY 67% of the US is overweight or obese. Penalize all you want, but many people will take that $50 fee out of their monthly grocery allotment and make up the difference with even crappier food choices.
These wellness programs are cash cows for medical insurance companies. My current insurance has this wellness crap. I have to participate in it or I get penalized financially. It's a bunch of grade school level bovine excrement. I answered a series of online questions and then talked with a "nurse" about the results. This "nurse" read from scripts that addressed issues at a superficial and elementary level. Of course, she read my BMI to me and then launched into the standard blah, blah, blah about the benefits of losing weight. I didn't say anything. Then she launched into scripted lectures about other things. I didn't say anything. Then she said, "So let's get started on a plan to improve your health." I said, "No." She said, "What?" I said, "No. Now, are we done?" She spluttered something and I said, "Look, I'm only doing this so that I'm not financially penalized. I have no interest in this program. So, are we done now?" She said, "Well, yes, I guess."
What a waste of an hour of my life. I have competent and caring medical practitioners who know me and understand my problems. The last thing I need is the interference of some insurance hack reading from scripts.
Well, that turned into a bit of a rant!
Last edited by Garnet2727; 03-20-2013 at 07:46 PM.
My company is still offering the incentives rather than the penalties, though I could imagine it turning. They changed our insurance a few years ago and decreased the benefits, but you can get money in a medical spending account by getting a physical, having a healthy BMI, completing an exercise program, etc. At my salary I can earn up to an extra $700/year which I really need, since we no longer have set co-pays and it's a carpshoot what I end up paying when I got to the dr(esp specialists..one visit to an in-network doctor for my son cost $350 last year).
My company has a $50 a month surcharge if you don't complete a wellness "questionnaire." There are places on the questionnaire for all sorts of heath questions, but it's not required that you entire your body numbers (height, weight, cholesterol, etc. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before those numbers are required.
I've read of certain companies that will fire you in Japan if you don't maintain a certain weight. I've heard it happen here sometimes for smokers.
It's such a fine line. While I believe a company can hire/fire someone for anything they want aside from discriminatory laws, I wonder if firing for a person's health should also be discriminatory if they can do the work.
my old company did the same thing. They did it as a reward, where you saved a certain amount of money by participating in the program, but I don't really think it matters how it's described - if you do the program, your health insurance costs less whether it's called a penalty or an incentive.
At my current job (in a hospital, prior job was not in the healthcare field), they have said they have no plans to put a health assessment program into place- I just hope it stays that way!
My husband's work has this, too. Not just weight and a questionnaire. They have nurses come in to the office every year for blood work, urine test, weight, measurements, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. Then your insurance costs are based on the numbers.
Disgusting. I hate the way America has completely lost the concept of insurance. It is supposed to share the risk. If it is just about taking on your own risk, then there is no point. Burn the Constitution. Bring back the King.
My company has done this for years also. If you don't do it, you pay the normal rate. If you do it, you get $1,200 off per year. The results are supposed to be confidential and go through a third party. I don't see anything wrong with it.
I would, however, have a problem if those results were used against you. Especially when certain things have been debunked years ago yet the medical establishment still has not accepted it. Like cholesterol for instance. Doctors still consider 200 to be the upper limit yet it was disproved that cholesterol has anything to do with heart disease. I would be mad if my 230 cholesterol number was used against me.
I read that as "if you don't, you pay $1200 over the normal rate!"
I want to see the parachute, mountain bike, activity sport etc. questions that also put people in the doctors' office before people ask me about my stats.
CVS forces employees to tell them their weight.
